Nick Saban

It's never easy to follow in the footsteps of a legend, but that is exactly what Kalen DeBoer is going to do.

The University of Alabama announced the Washington head coach would become the team's new coach, after Nick Saban's retirement on Wednesday. That comes after ESPN's Mark Schlabach and Chris Low reported DeBoer and Alabama were in contract negotiations.

Low later reported that a deal was done.

According to Yahoo Sports' Ross Dellenger, Alabama will owe Washington approximately $12 million to buy out DeBoer's deal:

Dellenger previously noted Washington recently had an offer on the table of seven years and more than $9 million per season to keep DeBoer.

The Crimson Tide job was vacant because Nick Saban retired on Jan. 10 after 17 incredible years leading the program. His tenure included six national championships, four Heisman Trophy winners and some of the most consistent success in the history of the sport.

Saban wasn't only the face of Alabama, but also the face of college football as a whole.

His teams won three BCS titles and continued to dominate in the College Football Playoff era with three more championships to go along with three other appearances in the national title game.

In all, Saban went 206-29 at Alabama and finished all of his seasons with double-digit wins except for his first one.

Now DeBoer takes over a program with championship-or-bust expectations every season. That is plenty of pressure even before the realization he will surely be compared to Saban throughout his time with the Crimson Tide regardless of how much success he finds.

And this is a new era of college football with various challenges such as name, image and likeness deals and the transfer portal to contend with while attempting to maintain a dynasty. The 2024 campaign will also be the start of the 12-team playoff, which is both a blessing and a curse for coaches at the top programs in the country.

On the one hand, it is easier than ever to reach the playoff. However, it is also more difficult to navigate one's way to a national championship with additional rounds and daunting opponents to get through on the sport's biggest stage.

The expectations aren't going to change for DeBoer, either.

After all, Alabama is coming off a season that saw it win the SEC title by handing Georgia its first loss since the 2021 campaign. The Crimson Tide reached the CFP and have no shortage of talent after Saban brought in the No. 2 recruiting class in 2024, No. 1 class in 2023 and No. 2 class in 2022, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

It will now be up to DeBoer to parlay all that talent into the next championship-winning Alabama team.

The task is loaded with pressure, but he led Washington to the CFP national title game in just his second season after taking over the program. The Huskies were 4-8 in 2021 before DeBoer arrived and immediately improved to 11-2 in his first season and one win away from a championship in his second.

However, his only other previous head coaching experience was at Fresno State.

Coaching in the SEC is a different job entirely, and he will be facing far more pressure at Alabama than he did in either of his previous two stops. He proved he can take an underperforming team and elevate it to new heights when he was with the Huskies, but now he will need to take the sport's premier program and maintain its status.

After leading the Alabama Crimson Tide in receptions in 2023, wide receiver Isaiah Bond is preparing to potentially transfer.

According to ESPN's Pete Thamel and the A&P Sports Agency, Bond filed the paperwork needed to enter the transfer portal Friday.

The decision comes after longtime Alabama head football coach Nick Saban announced his retirement Thursday, ending his 17-year run with the program.

While Bond finished with just 17 receptions for 220 yards and one touchdown as a freshman in 2022, he took a huge step forward this past season, recording 48 grabs for 668 yards and four scores.

In addition to being the leading receiver for quarterback Jalen Milroe and the Alabama offense in terms of catches, Bond was second in yards and touchdown receptions behind only Jermaine Burton.

With Burton entering the 2024 NFL draft on the heels of his senior season and Bond potentially transferring elsewhere, Bama will have a ton of production to replace in the passing game.

The 19-year-old Bond was rated as a 4-star prospect by 247Sports in his recruiting class, as well as the No. 43 overall player and No. 2 athlete.

Based on the improvement Bond showed from 2022 to 2023, he may be poised to approach 1,000 yards and double-digit touchdowns as a junior depending on where he lands.

While the Crimson Tide beat Georgia in the SEC Championship Game and reached the College Football Playoff, their aerial attack was not as dangerous as it was in previous years.

Milroe, who has already announced that he is returning to Alabama in 2024 as the presumed starting quarterback, showed plenty of growth over the course of 2023, but he still had only 2,834 passing yards.

Many other schools are passing at a much higher volume, and if Bond goes to one of them, there may be a greater opportunity for him to put up huge numbers and position himself for the 2025 or 2026 NFL draft.

Notable players often transfer when a college coach retires, is fired or decides to go elsewhere, so Bond may prove to be the first of many.

Of course, Alabama's choice of who will succeed Saban could play a significant role in either retaining or losing talent.

Kennington Smith III and Bruce Feldman of The Athletic reported this week that Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer, Florida State head coach Mike Norvell and Alabama offensive coordinator Tommy Rees are the top three candidates to replace Saban.

However, Florida State announced Friday that Norvell has agreed to an enhanced contract, which takes him out of the mix for the Bama job.

That potentially brings the field down to DeBoer or Rees, and it is fair to wonder if the continuity of keeping Rees and promoting him to head coach would result in Alabama being able to keep most of its current players.

New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers expressed his admiration for longtime New England Patriots head coach Bill Belichick and Alabama Crimson Tide head coach Nick Saban on Thursday.

During an appearance on the Pat McAfee Show, Rodgers noted that he has "a ton of respect" for both Belichick and Saban:

Saban announced Wednesday that he is retiring from coaching after 17 years at Alabama and 28 years as a collegiate head coach overall, while Belichick announced Thursday that he and the Patriots mutually agreed to part ways after 24 years in New England.

Rodgers referred to Belichick and Saban as "game-changers" and "trailblazers" in the sport of football due to everything they accomplished at the professional and collegiate levels.

During their respective careers, Rodgers and Belichick went up against each other on multiple occasions, and it is clear that they had mutual respect for each other.

Rodgers told a story about Belichick waiting on the field until after he finished an interview while he was quarterback of the Green Bay Packers so they could have a conversation after the game.

The future Hall of Fame quarterback noted that it was uncommon since coaches often leave the field after shaking hands with the other coach, so it spoke to acclaim they had for each other.

Rodgers also talked about his history with Saban, recalling that Saban interviewed him in preparation for the NFL draft while Saban was head coach of the Miami Dolphins.

He called the impact Saban had on hundreds of student-athletes during his career "exponential," and congratulated him on all of his accomplishments.

Belichick is arguably the greatest head coach in NFL history, as he won six Super Bowls and 17 AFC East titles in 24 years with the Patriots, but even with all he has accomplished, he appears set to continue his coaching career elsewhere.

As for Saban, he is ready for retirement after winning seven national championships as a head coach, but Rodgers expressed hope that he remains involved with the game somehow, even if it is as a television analyst.

Rodgers suggested that the sport of football is better off when both Belichick and Saban are part of it.

McAfee noted that Rodgers was the final person Belichick spoke to on the field while he was still head coach of the Patriots, as they conversed after the Jets' 17-3 win in Week 18.

Assuming Rodgers plays and Belichick coaches beyond this season, it is possible they could compete against each other again in the future.

Nick Saban's surprise decision to retire as Alabama's head coach on Wednesday was done in part because he couldn't do the job in the way that was required of him.

Speaking to ESPN's Chris Low, Saban said the 2023 season was "difficult for me from just a health standpoint" even though there's nothing "major" wrong with him.

"It just got a little bit harder," he explained. "So you have to decide, 'OK, this is sort of inevitable when you get to my age."

Saban issued a statement on Wednesday announcing his retirement after 17 seasons with the Crimson Tide:

"The University of Alabama has been a very special place to Terry and me. We have enjoyed every minute of our 17 years being the head coach at Alabama as well as becoming a part of the Tuscaloosa community. It is not just about how many games we won and lost, but it's about the legacy and how we went about it. We always tried to do it the right way. The goal was always to help players create more value for their future, be the best player they could be and be more successful in life because they were part of the program. Hopefully, we have done that, and we will always consider Alabama our home."

Saban, 72, was the second-oldest head coach in FBS last season. He's only two months younger than North Carolina's Mack Brown.

Even though Saban said he "would have been happy to try" giving Alabama all he had for the next few years, he ultimately "didn't feel like I could do that" and didn't want to be in a position where he was operating on a year-to-year basis.

One reason that Saban's decision to walk away caught many people off guard is because he was conducting business as usual, even on Wednesday.

Per Nick Kelly of the Tuscaloosa News, Saban was interviewing candidates for openings on his staff Wednesday morning.

Low noted Saban told Alabama coaches and players at a 4 p.m. meeting in the team room he was retiring, and the whole thing didn't last more than 10 minutes.

One thing Saban made clear to Low that his decision to walk away wasn't about the changing landscape in college football, including the transfer portal and NIL rules:

"Don't make it about that. It's not about that. To me, if you choose to coach, you don't need to be complaining about all that stuff. You need to adjust to it and adapt to it and do the best you can under the circumstances and not complain about it. Now, I think everybody is frustrated about it. We had an SEC conference call, 14 coaches on there [Wednesday], and there's not one guy you can talk to who really understands what's happening in college football and thinks that it's not an issue."

Saban will be around the football program to help with the transition as the athletic department searches for a new head coach.

Whoever the person to replace Saban ends up being will have impossible shoes to fill. He led the Crimson Tide to nine SEC titles and six national championships over the past 17 seasons.

Dabo Swinney may have played college football at Alabama, but it doesn't seem like the current students are looking for any type of homecoming.

After legendary head coach Nick Saban retired Wednesday, some Alabama students were seen chanting "anyone but Dabo" for a potential replacement:

There may not be much love lost between Alabama fans and Swinney. After all, the Crimson Tide faced Swinney's Clemson squad in the College Football Playoff National Championship Game three different times, and the Tigers came out victorious in two of the matchups.

Perhaps there are also concerns that Clemson has trended in the wrong direction of late.

The Tigers missed the CFP in each of the last three seasons, and there has been some criticism for the coach's lackluster approach to the transfer portal and the new era of college football. Any unwillingness to adapt to today's game would only become more troubling in the SEC, where the Crimson Tide consistently face some of the country's top competition.

Still, Swinney is a proven winner and multi-time national champion with a clear connection to the Crimson Tide.

But Alabama fans don't seem too excited about the idea of bringing him back.

Following the retirement of longtime Alabama head coach Nick Saban, he received some praise from another legendary college coach.

Michigan State men's basketball head coach Tom Izzo offered his thoughts on Saban calling it a career.

"I think he's the greatest coach in the history of football," Izzo told Larry Lage of the Associated Press. "There are a lot of great coaches, but what he's done and the consistency that he did it — in an era where so many people and things are coming at you — is remarkable."

Saban is the winningest coach in college football history with seven national titles. Izzo has led Michigan State to eight Final Four appearances and a national title in 2000.

It's unclear who will be tasked with replacing Saban, but that person will certainly have huge shoes to fill.

Colorado has been no stranger to the transfer portal during Deion Sanders' brief tenure as head coach, and that might not be changing anytime soon.

After legendary Alabama head coach Nick Saban retired, per ESPN's Chris Low, Colorado quarterback Shedeur Sanders immediately took to social media in an effort to get Crimson Tide players to join his team:

Saban's retirement and any head coaching change triggers a 30-day transfer window for players at that school.

Colorado surely won't be the only school interested in Alabama players during the ensuing 30-day transfer window.

After all, the Crimson Tide are loaded with talent every year in a testament to the program Saban built during his tenure of dominance. The team just won the SEC title and reached the College Football Playoff and is primed to once again be on the shortlist of championship contenders in 2024 and beyond.

Saban landed the No. 2 recruiting class in 2024, No. 1 class in 2023 and No. 2 class in 2022, per 247Sports' composite rankings, so there are no questions about the amount of talent on campus.

Even landing one or two of those players could alter the outlook for any program, even the very best in the sport.

But Colorado is far from the very best in the sport.

It went 4-8 in a 2023 season that was defined by far more media coverage than actual wins. The Buffaloes have finished with more than five wins one time since the 2007 season and still have plenty of ground to make up even under Sanders to be considered a legitimate threat as they move to the Big 12.

However, rapid improvement is more readily available than ever in today's college football world thanks to the transfer portal.

According to 247Sports' rankings, Sanders brought in the top-ranked portal class in 2023 and has the No. 3 class this year.

Adding players from Alabama would only improve that ranking.

Alabama's legendary head coach, Nick Saban, shockingly retired on Wednesday. But it's always possible he could stick around the college game as a broadcaster.

Amanda Christovich and Michael McCarthy of Front Office Sports reported that "industry sources" see Saban as the "perfect" addition to ESPN's College GameDay, noting that "Lee Corso can stay on the show as long as he wants, ESPN sources say, but the network has long eyed the Alabama coach as Corso's possible successor."

Saban has already made appearances on both College GameDay and ESPN's new flagship program, The Pat McAfee Show, on multiple occasions. But going from coaching to the entertainment side of the game would undoubtedly be an adjustment for the man who liked to compare the media hype surrounding his team to "rat poison."

The knowledge of the game he would bring to the program would be unrivaled, however.

"I don't know if [Saban] has the passion for the fans that Corso does or the entertainment aspect of things," a source told Front Office Sports. "But it certainly makes a lot of sense."

Saban, 72, posted an incredible career record of 297-71-1 in his college career, with stops at Toledo (1990), Michigan State (1995-99), LSU (2000-04) and Alabama (2007-23). His accolades include seven national championships, a 19-12 record in bowl games and a 9-5 record in the College Football Playoff.

He also had a cup of coffee in the NFL, going 15–17 with the Miami Dolphins in the 2005-06 seasons.

Former coaches and quarterbacks generally transition well into broadcasting analyst roles, and networks pay big money for high-profile options like Saban. Look no further than the 10-year, $375 million contract Tom Brady signed with Fox to eventually become its top color commentator on its NFL broadcasts.

Fox also went with a former college coach as part of its Big Noon Kickoff program, bringing aboard the controversial former coach of Utah, Florida, Ohio State and the Jacksonville Jaguars, Urban Meyer.

ESPN landing Saban would undoubtedly up the ante in the college football broadcasting wars.